Online Shopping

I have had some hits and misses lately with online shopping.  Overall a big hit, but not without it's issues.  Before Christmas, I purchased something from Best Buy and later called to see if they would price match a competitor's lower cost.  They wouldn't but that call led to a two-month ordeal that never did fully resolve.  After multiple calls, emails, and online postings, we finally determined that the BB rep who took my call left my account information open on her screen and then took a call from someone else placing an order.  His information ended up on my account history.  To make a long story short, BB determined they couldn't remove it from my account, sent me a generous gift card, and the guy who placed the order (that ended up on my account) is now my email pen pal...  Another miss:  rebates.  I bought several computer items that were on sale after rebate and each one of them requires cutting the UPC code off of the item box and mailing it in along with receipts and forms.  What century are we living in that we have to do that?  Surely there is a better way.  Out of about 10 recent rebate submissions, 8 have worked out fine, one was lost (luckily the box actually had 2 UPC codes so I was able to re-submit and confirm it was received) and one is probably not going to work out - there were actually two rebates for the same item but each requires an original UPC.  I will send the original UPC to the bigger rebate and a copy of it to the lesser one and hope for the best.

On a positive note, I have found that purchasing online for store pickup can be MUCH cheaper than buying the same item off of the shelf.  Wal-Mart is my favorite for this.  Bought something online for $50.  Same item (that an employee went and pulled off the shelf for me to pick up) sells for $88 in store.  Just last night I bought an HDMI cable online for $10.  Hanging just feet from the pickup counter is the same item - $17.  I think I am on to something here...